Eastwood says he'd love to be directing at age 105

NEW YORK (AP) -- Clint Eastwood may be 82 years old, but he dreams of making films for two more decades.

In a wide-ranging conversation Saturday about the art of film directing, Eastwood expressed admiration for the 104-year-old Portuguese director Manoel de Oliveira.

"It would be great to be 105 and still making films," Eastwood said. Chuckling, he called such a hope "the ultimate optimism."

Eastwood last directed 2011's "J. Edgar," a biopic of the FBI head J. Edgar Hoover. After acting in last year's baseball drama "Trouble With the Curve," he has several films in development.

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The "Million Dollar Baby" and "Unforgiven" director joined fellow filmmaker Darren Aronofsky for a staged talk at the Tribeca Film Festival following a screening of Richard Schickel's documentary "Eastwood Directs: The Untold Story." Eastwood regaled the Tribeca Performing Arts Center crowd with the accrued, pragmatic wisdom from his late career as an acclaimed filmmaker.

Some of the highlights:

-- On preferring to begin a take with "Go when you're ready," rather than the traditional "Action!": "'Action' puts a bad connotation out there, like some firecracker that goes off to get everyone going."

-- On his willingness to take suggestions for a scene from anyone: "You have to steal a lot. You have to have a criminal mentality to be a film director."

-- On the role of the director in a film production: "A lot of people fell in love with the auteur theory, but you're merely a platoon captain."

-- On studio executives who told him no one wants to see a women's fight film (the best picture-winning "Million Dollar Baby"): "Who the hell wants to see anything? You never know until you get into it."

-- On struggling to get films green-lit: "In the early days it was more of a fight. Now, they go, 'Oh, well, if he's the old guy."